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Monday, May 26, 2014

Heading off to the Australian Veterinary Association Conference

This is the sort of passive resistance I face when I go on conference leave. Phil is using "the look" to say "don't go" (in fact, if he could be singing, he would be belting out this tune).

This week I’m at the 2014
Annual Australian Veterinary Association conference, in sunny Perth (though it
was raining when the plane landed). The theme of the conference is “What’s Best
Practice?” and like the other delegates I’m here to update my knowledge and
learn as much as I can.

If you’re interested to
hear what vets are learning about, you can check out the program here.

Some readers may remember
that last year the Labour Government tabled a $2000 cap on continuing education
expenses. One argument was that they wanted to crack down on people swanning
around Europe on study tour or living it up at five-star hotels under the guise
of education. The cap was scrapped but would have been pretty dangerous putting
restrictions on how much continuing education is tax deductible. The AVA lobbied along with other professional organisations to scrap the proposed cap (read more here).

Michael also gets involved, and if you try to move her she gives that "you aren't going to the AVA conference without me" growl.

I can attest that there is
no swanning around happening here (even though the conference is on the banks
of the Swan River). As soon as we arrived last night it was all about catching-up
with colleagues, debriefing about cases (I spoke to an incredible new graduate
who talked me through her very heroic first gastric dilatation-volvulus (GDV) surgery
that she managed successfully thanks to some lateral thinking), and off to a
meeting with other vets who do some teaching and comparing assessment tasks.

Double whammy: after Mike dug out a bunch of items she felt were unnecessary, they BOTH got in and very awkwardly shared the space.

And the first lecture starts
at 6.45am Perth time! I just need to get me some hemorrhoid cream to sort out the bags under my eyes.

If you’re on twitter you
can find out what’s going on by searching under #AVAConf.

Meantime my man Hero didn't seem too upset at all. "What, you're going? Can you flip open a can of Fancy Feast and close the door after you?"

Veterinary Ethics: Navigating Tough Cases

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